•Global crude futures were mixed Monday with ICE Brent and NYMEX WTI May futures contracts diverging, although markets were generally more settled than last week with no significant developments over the weekend in the UK-Iran standoff, market sources said. At 1030 GMT May ICE Brent was trading at $68.46/barrel, up 36 cents from Friday's settle. The May WTI contracts on NYMEX and ICE traded 10 cents and 12 cents lower respectively at $65.77/b and $65.75/b.

•"Fundamentally, the situation is unchanged since Friday," said one London-based broker. "There is less tension in the market over Iran and people are relieved there was no aggression from either the US or the UK this weekend. There was a brief sell-off during the Asian window, but it is recovering from that now."

•The ICE Brent and NYMEX front month spread continued to diverge, standing at minus $2.69/b. Open interest in both crude and products remains high with NYMEX announcing record highs last week in its WTI contract open interest. Open interest in light sweet crude futures on NYMEX hit a record 1,349,933 lots on March 29.

Updated: April 2, 2007